Drug and medicine container



F. T. COKER, JR

DRUG AND MEDICINE CONTAINER July 28, 1970 Filed Oct. 25. 1968 3 3 ///7 K////&//N /A I 5 Mm 7 wW w [M mm QM I 3i /Z m 3 l L F m M 2 film m W, x22Y B 3 3 0 w, 4 2 \f m 2 w M ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,521,936DRUG AND MEDICINE CONTAINER Frederick T. Coker, Jr., Boylston, Mass.,assignor to llco Corporation, Fitchburg, Mass., a corporation ofMassachusetts Filed Oct. 25, 1968, Ser. No. 770,676 Int. Cl. A47b 81/00US. Cl. 312209 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A universal medicinesafe for use in conjunction with conventional medicine cabinets of avariety of sizes, the safe having means for preventing access to thecontents while permitting visual inspection thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention is inthe field of medicine cabinets, and particularly those customarilyinstalled in homes.

This invention relates particularly to a medicine safe capable of beingreadily installed within a wide range of sizes of conventional medicinecabinets, the safe pref rably permitting inspection of the contentswhile preventing unauthorized access thereto.

The prior art It is well known that many drugs, medicines and reagentsconventionally stored in the home and totally harmless to some users aredangerous or even fatal, if ingested by others. Annually many deathsresult from persons, notably children, obtaining and swallowing drugsstored in a medicine cabinet in the ordinary manner. It is not generallyappreciated that even minor dosages of drugs considered to be innocuous,such as aspirin, may be harmful or even fatal, if swallowed by children.Since it is known that, by reason of their natural curiosity, childrenmay extract and sample dangerous medicines, it is customary to storesuch medications in out of the way and inconvenient places, forinstance, the highest shelves in a closet, etc. A drawback inhering insuch practice is that an authorized person may experience difficulty anddelay in retrieving the medication. Much time may be lost in searchingfor a drug, with consequent nuisance or even harm to the patient.

It has been proposed to provide locked enclosures, preferably to belocated within a medicine cabinet. Such enclosures provide theadvantages of storing of medicines in their logical location andpreventing access to unauthorized persons. However, due to the widevariety of different sizes and shapes of medicine cabinets presently inuse, no form of locked enclosures has heretofore been devised which hasall the advantages of security and facile installation while providingvisual access to the contents of the safe. Cabinets heretofore availablerequire the removal of conventional shelves forming part of the medicinecabinet, thus greatly reducing the storage capacity of the medicinecabinet per se.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A locked medicine safe for installation withinconventional medicine cabinets of a wide variety of sizes and shapes,providing security for the contents while permitting visual access tothe interior of the safe. The device comprises a subenclosure having arear wall which is disposed in abutting relation to the rear wall of themedicine cabinet. The device is preferably secured to the rear wall ofthe cabinet by fastener means, such as sheet metal screws, access towhich screws is available only when the front door of the safe is open.

The side walls of the safe are each provided with verticallyspaced-apart, forwardly and rearwardly directed slots, each of the slotsproviding a large vertical clearance area. The conventional shelvesexisting in medicine cabinets are sleeved through registering pairs ofslots in the side walls of the safe. The vertical adjusting meansconventionally provided in medicine cabinets are located along theirsupport standards to position the shelves substantially centrally withinthe clearance areas defined by the slots.

By this means the existing shelves of a medicine cabinet also form theshelves of the safe, the spaces between the slots and the shelvespermitting visual access to the interior of the safe. By disposing theshelves centrally within the spaces, removal of the contents of the safethrough the slots is prevented, the shelves serving to subdivide andreduce the clearances.

Optionally, the front door of the safe may be formed of transparentplastic material so as to provide visual access to the front row ofdrugs and medications disposed within the safe, visual access to therearwardly located medications being available through the sides, asnoted above.

The front door, whether transparent or otherwise, is provided withlocking means of any conventional sort.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a universalmedicine safe which may be readily installed in any of a wide variety ofdifferent medicine cabinets, thus to reduce or eliminate the requirementfor a vendor to stack a plurality of different sizes of safes.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a medicine safe ofthe type described having walls defining a series of verticallyspaced-apart slots, through which slots the shelves of conventionalmedicine cabinets may be sleeved, to permit these shelves also to serveas the shelves of the safe, and thereby avoid ineflicient use of thespace within the cabinet.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a device of thetype described wherein visual access to the interior of the safe isprovided through a front door or wall portion which is preferablytransparent and, additionally, through the spaces between the shelvesand the slots in the side wall.

To attain these objects and such further objects as may appear herein orbe hereinafter pointed out, reference is made to the accompanyingdrawings, forming a part hereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a medicine cabinet within which isinstalled a medicine safe of the type described;

FIG. 2 is a magnified vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a magnified horizontal section taken on the line 33 of FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, 10 identifies an essentially conventionalmedicine cabinet of the type which includes vertical boundary walls 11,12, a top wall 13 and a bottom wall 14. The cabinet 10 is conventionallymounted in either recessed or projecting fashion to a wall or bulkhead15 of a bathroom.

Vertical adjustment standards 16 are fixed to the inner faces of theboundary walls 11, 12, the standards being provided with conventionalclips 17 selectively attached thereto at desired heights, to support thehorizontal shelves 18 of the medicine cabinet. The height or spacing ofthe shelves, as is well known, may be controlled by the positioning ofthe clips. The medicine cabinet may include a door 19 connected byhinges 20 to the wall 12, in known manner.

The medicine safe 21 is adapted to be mounted within the medicinecabinet to provide visual access to the contents of the safe whilebarring access to the contents except to one having a key which fits thelock in the door 22 of the safe.

The safe includes vertical side walls 23, 24, a back wall 25, a top wall26 and a bottom wall 27. The top, bottom, side and back walls arepreferably made of metal to a box-like conformation. The front door 22,which is optionally but preferably fabricated of transparent plasticmaterial, is connected by hinges 28 to side wall 23. A conventional keyoperated lock mechanism 29 may include a lock cam 30 which, in thelocked position, inwardly laps a fixed locking dog 31 extending inwardlyfrom the wall 24.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that one having a key capableof operating the lock 29 will be able to rotate the cam 90 so as toclear the cam from the path of the locking dog 31, permitting the door22 to be swung open.

The medicine safe is fixed in position within the cabinet byconventional fasteners, such as sheet metal screws 32 which extendrearwardly through the back wall 29 of the safe and into the back wall33 of the medicine cabinet. It will be appreciated that access to theattaching screws may be had only when the door 22 is open, thuspreventing bodily removal of the safe by an unauthorized person.

The side wall portions 23, 24 of the safe are provided with verticallyspaced-apart, transversely directed slots 34, 34', 35, 35', 36, 36'. Aswill best be seen from FIG. 1, the slots extend transversely for thegreater part of the depth of the safe. Additionally, the vertical heightof the slots is considerably greater than that required to accommodatethe thickness of the shelves 18 of the medicine cabinet.

At the initial installation, the shelves are sleeved with the slots 34,34, 35, 35', 36, 36 in advance of attachment of the mounting screws 32.Thereafter, the clips 17 are adjusted heightwisely to orient the shelves18 within the slots in such manner that the shelves are essentiallycentrally located within the slots.

From the foregoing it will be evident that, due to the vertical extentof the slots, a range of heightwise adjustment of the shelves may beprovided which will permit the medicine safe to be accommodated tosubstantially any existing medicine cabinet.

Further, the oversize slots provide a particularly desirable feature,namely, the ability to inspect the contents of the safe by lateralobservation through the slots without permitting sufiicient clearancefor abstraction of the contents of the safe.

It has been determined that a heightwise dimension for the slots ofabout 1% to 2" is ideal. Where a shelf is centrally disposed within sucha slot and assuming a shelf thickness of about A, a total availableclearance space of from about 1% to 1%" is provided. However, as thisclearance area is subdivided by the shelves, an actual clearance of A"or less is available and, as will be readily recognized, such space isnot sufiicient for the withdrawal of normal sized medicament containers.

If particularly high security is desired and visual access through theside portions is not important, it is feasible to reduce the clearanceareas adjacent any of the shelves by the simple expedient of readjustingthe clips supporting the shelf or shelves adjacent which minimumclearances are required.

From the foregoing it will be evident that there is provided a medicinesafe having the primary advantages of universality and high security,while permitting ready inspection of the contents. The installation ofthe safe may be easily accomplished, and the safe cannot be removedexcept by an authorized person having key means permitting access to thescrews or like mounting expedients.

By enabling the use of existing shelving, the space within the medicinecabinet is employed in the most eificient manner possible.

Having thus described the invention and illustrated its use, what isclaimed as new and is desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a medicine cabinet of the type which comprises an enclosure havinga plurality of vertically adjustable shelves and a back wall portion, auniversal medicine safe for the visibly accessible storage of medicines,drugs and the like comprising a rear wall fixed to said back wall, sidewalls and a closure member movable between locking and unlockingpositions of said safe, lock means actuatable to fix said closure memberin said locked position to prevent access to the contents of said safe,each said side wall including a plurality of vertically spaced-aparthorizontal slots extending across substantially the entirety of saidside walls, the slots of said side walls being in registry with eachother, said shelves extending through a pair of said registering slots,the vertical extent of said slots above said shelves being sufficient todefine a substantial clearance area thus to provide visual access to thecontents of said shelves.

2. A device in accordance with claim 1 wherein said closure member istransparent.

3. A device in accordance with claim 1 wherein said side walls areopaque.

4. In combination, a medicine cabinet comprising an enclosure includinga back wall portion and spaced, vertically directed boundaries, saidboundaries including vertically adjustable shelf support means, amedicine safe in said enclosure including a rear wall, side walls and afront closure member movable between locking and unlocking positions ofsaid safe, lock means actuatable to fix said closure member in saidlocked position to prevent access to the contents of said safe, eachsaid side wall including a plurality of vertically spaced-apart,horizontally directed slots extending across substantially the entiretyof said side walls, the slots of said side walls being in registry, aplurality of shelves supported on said adjustable support means, eachsaid shelf extending through a registering pair of said slots, thevertical extent of said slots being sufficient to define a substantialclearance area, thus to provide visual access to the contents of saidshelves and to permit substantial vertical adjustment of said shelveswithin said slots, said slots limiting outward movement of said shelveswith respect to said enclosure.

5. A device in accordance with claim 4 wherein said shelves are adjustedto be disposed substantially medially within said slots, whereby theclearance areas defined between said slots and shelves above and belowsaid shelves are substantially equal.

6. A device in accordance with claim 4 and including fastener meanssecuring said rear wall to said back Wall, said fastener means beingpositioned within said safe to be accessible only in the open positionof said closure member.

7. A device in accordance with claim 5 wherein the vertical extent ofsaid slots is from about 1 /2 to about 2".

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 391,506 10/1888 Brown 312-2091,254,132 1/1918 Garman. 1,758,843 5/1930 Lizotte 312245 X 3,008,78511/1961 Gehrs 312245 X 3,071,425 1/1963 West 312209 X 3,185,534 5/1965Peters 312209 3,187,926 6/ 1965 Zimmet.

DENNIS L. TAYLOR, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 312-245

